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Use of the Internet by Sudanese doctors and medical students

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Abstract

Patterns of use of the Internet were investigated by a questionnaire survey of 102 hospital doctors and 123 medical students in Khartoum, Sudan, in January 2005. More doctors [‎84.3%]‎ had used the Internet than had students [‎78.9%]‎. Half of consultants [‎55.0%]‎ used the Internet daily, compared with only 18.2% of junior doctors. Many consultants and junior doctors rated their abilities as poor [‎60.0% and 53.1%]‎. One-third of students [‎33.3%]‎ used the Internet only for personal and not for academic purposes. Barriers to greater use of the Internet by doctors included: time constraints [‎80.2%]‎, poor skills [‎54.6%]‎, no access to full texts of journal articles [‎53.4%]‎, difficulty in verifying the quality of information [‎47.6%]‎ and high costs [‎41.8%]‎. Students faced similar barriers but also listed poor knowledge of the English language